COMMERCE CITY, CO - JULY 4 : Juan Pablo Angel #9 of the New York Red Bulls celebrates a goal during the first half at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on July 4, 2010 in Commerce City, Colorado. (Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

The Red Bulls head into the playoffs with their two star forwards _ $7 million worth of striker _ as huge question marks. Thierry Henry hasn’t practiced in over two weeks _ expected to return in some form Tuesday _ while Juan Pablo Angel hasn’t put a shot on frame in weeks, or scored from the run of play in months.

New York finished first in the Eastern Conference for the first time in a decade, and only the second time in team history. They’re the top seed in the East, and playing an Earthquakes team who is the lowest overall seed of the eight playoff sides. But make no mistake, they’ve got concerns up front.

“I haven’t even had a shot on goal. It’s one of those times that chances aren’t going your way,” the departing Angel said of his last two games against Philadelphia and New England. “I played well, but I didn’t create any chances and the ball wasn’t coming to me in the area you normally need it to. But I’m not concerned about it.”

Angel _ who is in the final year of his Red Bull contract and won’t be brought back next season _ has a team-high 13 goals, tied for sixth-best in the league, but he has clearly been in a scoring funk. He hasn’t put a single shot on frame in the regular-season’s final two tilts, and just one on target the game before that. But his drought stretches back much further than that.

The team captain buried penalties in wins Sept. 24 at Los Angeles and Aug. 21 at Toronto. And while they count all the same, and are pressure moments to be sure, he hasn’t scored from the run of play since a July 31 brace in Houston, an unlucky span of 13 games and nearly three months from Saturday’s playoff opener.

Whether he’s being tactful, politically-correct or honest, coach Hans Backe claims Angel is still a potent scorer and professes he isn’t worried.

“For every striker, goals don’t come for weeks and then they’re back scoring,” Backe said. “That’s just the way it is in football. It happens to every striker.

“He’s still a very professional player, his work rate is good, his attitude is very good, and he runs into his normal positions in the box. I don’t have an answer; it’s just typical. It goes month-to-month, and then you start scoring again. That’s just the way it is.”

The irony is hard to ignore, that the Red Bulls’ $1.9 million captain _ who turned 35 over the weekend _ last scored from the run of play in the same Dynamo tilt that new $5 million Designated Player Thierry Henry made his MLS debut.

The Red Bulls have struggled for offensive punch in the final third over the past month or so. But when asked if that was in part to integrating new midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy into the lineup, both Angel and Backe pointed instead to nagging injuries, specifically to the strikeforce according to Angel.

“Henry has been out for a few games,” Angel reminded. “Personally I felt that he and I were finding each other pretty well, and combining well and linking up well. He hasn’t played in a few games and I would’ve liked to think it’s us not having him on the field.

“I haven’t really had a partnership here in my time here, so we were playing week-in and week-out, and right from the beginning we clicked. I’d like to think it’s more his absence than Mehdi’s presence.”

Angel may have a point. In seven consecutive games together, the two veteran strikers _ with years of experience and high soccer IQs _ quickly formed a partnership. But with Angel benched Sept. 11 in Dallas and Henry nursing an MCL injury, they only played together in two of the final five contests, and it showed.

“They are similar, but because they know the game, their knowledge, I’d be surprised if they can’t connect and use each other’s combinations. It will work,” said Backe. “Because we have no (pace), we are without any striker _ if you look at Salou (Ibrahim), Conor (Chinn) _ we don’t have that pacy striker who gets in behind. Some games I feel we are a little too predictable.

“Other teams have a little more respect for us in how they defend. They really sit on our strikers, and their mentality knowing Henry is in lifts the defenders.”

Other teams know they have to be physical with both Angel and Henry, not let them face up to goal. But they also are well aware that _ other than Dane Richards, who has five goals in the final seven games _ the Red Bulls have little true pace. With Henry and Angel’s intelligence, they can likely find holes to work if they get healthy and on form, respectively.

Whether that happens will go a long way toward deciding whether the Red Bulls do just that as well.